Proven Winners lists Lychnis 'Orange Gnome' as L. coronaria instead of the obvious L. arkwrightii.

A local nursery had Salvia Amistad labelled as 50 cm tall (roughly 20”). It easily gets to 6ft here! I politely informed the owner that this was misleading, but she refused to listen. She also tried to sell me Gaillardia as Echinacea and refused to believe she was wrong there too!

The worst mislabelling culprits however, are online nurseries.. hardy geraniums, heleniums, echinacea again, dahlias.. the list goes on. At least at a local nursery you can often see them in bloom, rely on your own knowledge or check growth habits etc. on the internet before you buy.

A pet peeve is reputable rose breeders who should know better, still insisting on calling some roses ‘antique tea roses’ and citing the incorrect breeder and date, when research has proven otherwise and they are clearly more modern hybrids.

Too long ago to remember the source, but a mail order Co, instead of 3 Chinese dogwoods (Cornus controversa), sent me as I discovered soon enough, 3 standard lilacs (they had the dogwood labels on them). Arborday sent me among its "free" trees a bur oak, but discovered it was a white oak, which was fine w/me.

Seed merchants can be very dodgy. One lot, famed for their glorious catalogue and vast collection of cutting garden varieties have, every single time I have ever dealt with them, sent out old, unviable seed, incorrect seed, even an empty packet once. I obviously blamed myself for all the fails...until the penny dropped that it was only happening with one particular company. I eventually got a voucher refund but was so dispirited, I never cashed it in. Several years down the line and they are the sole supplier of Colibri Icelandic poppies which I wanted so much, I paid an eye-watering sum for 50 minuscule seeds, back last autumn...only to find I am growing meconopsis cambrica...practically a weed (although Ia lovely one). Plants of Distinction (or extinction as I refer to them) - never again.

Suzy -- is this the seed you're looking for? Iceland Poppy 'Colibri Dolce Vita Mix' F1 seeds - Papaver nudicaule

If so, I've ordered from Select Seeds several times, both plants and seeds - they're reputable. IDK if they ship overseas, though.

Yep, exactly them. Porks. Unavailable though. I think the hybridisers have various arrangements with a select few merchants - keeps them exclusive and prices high. Probably going to be Champagne Bubbles this year and may try again later in the year. Eventually, I expect the market will expand...especially if the poppies are as good as claimed. Thank you for looking - much appreciated.

"Yep, exactly them. Porks. Unavailable though."

Ooops, I missed that....

Not recent, but I bought an attractive plant seven years ago that was labelled "aralia spinosa" -- a spiny shrub native to eastern North America. After many years of waiting for it to flower, and a careful check of guides, I've decided that it's some type of a. elata/spinosa hybrid, if not outright, actually, a. elata. Very disappointing.

once a supermarket around here handed out "native flower seeds", I sprinkled a bag which was supposed to be meadow sage/ Salvia pratensis into a window box, and instead all that came up uniformly was a weird yellow Cruciferae, Brassicaceae

I think there needs to be more education on zone hardiness.

A plant that can withstand -30f is often rated as zone 4a, even thought -30f is the average low for zone 4a.

Or am I missing something?

Agree...to his credit, embothrium/bboy used to frequently point that out.

This thread got to me thinking of my history of ordering mail order plants. They are a fine nursery that has introduced scads of plants never in commerce before...but...the worst offender for "wishful thinking" hardiness labeling is probably Cistus! But I've met Sean, I truly think this really came from a kind of over-exuberance, rather than any malicious intent. And, point in fact, of course the USDA system isn't perfect. A plant Cistus sold as Zone 7 hardy, Ochagavia carnea IIRC, might have actually been able to survive "upper zone 7" temps in a place like Las Cruces, NM. For me it quickly died as soon as we encountered "zone 8" temps! Speaking of hardy bromeliads, btw, there is still a promising sliver of green on my Fascicularia bicolor that I bought from Cistus! So it might really be able to survive low single digits, with protection. (had a wall o water, which wouldn't have prevented the temps from going that low but would have offered other forms of protection)

As for NM/west Texas, I wish ospreynm was still around to report on his or her efforts in that part of the southwest. I think the key thing is even if it does drop into the single digits there, it's 1) it's dry as heck 2) the sun is still strong as heck 3) the next day the temps will rebound much faster than they will up here. So for example I got 2 seeds of Nolina erumpens to germinate that I collected in that region. The one on very well drained soil, but open to the elements, didn't survive. The one at the base of a south wall, with some rain sheltering due to my houses eaves, has survived. Both parts of my garden were "zone 7" but different micro-climates.

Sorry, I have to bump this.

Cardoons are not native to the western US!

Some in the mid-Atlantic region might recognize this nursery's info sheet style. For now I'm going to cut them some slack and not name them.

It has "naturalized" itself here in California. The Central Valley is full of it. Invasive to be sure. Our climate is similar to it's place of origin

my local nursery was struggling

Not a lily

Not a phlox

Agree on the Phlox, but Belamcanda is commonly called Blackberry Lily. If you would say the same on a pot labeled Daylily, then ok - but the nursery isn't to blame for the common name.

Yeah...that's the case of a bad common name...their flowers maybe a look a bit lily-like, but the foliage looks way more iris like...and they are in fact, related to Iris, not lilies. They've even been transferred to that genus! It was Belamcanda, but is now Iris domestica.

Oh that is labeled correctly! my bad. Thought it was an iris